1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to business automation systems and, more particularly, to a method for solving the specification problem which forms the technical foundation for a network-based business automation utility.
2. Background Description
Automation depends on converting understanding of a business""s operations, procedures, and intent into execution by a set of technical elements. Today, this requires a long complex series of transformations. Open ended and often fuzzy business understanding must be transformed into execution of that understanding through steps producing definitive requirements and specifications, analysis for technology requirements, logical design, physical implementation, and business implementation. Each of these steps has its own context with methods for determining what is important in the description and solution of problems. Even when smoothed by reuse and standardized components, today""s path from business need to operational automation is a difficult one.
Present technical systems either provide a fixed range of functionality which may be organized into custom configurations at high cost or are hindered by abstract models and technical issues separated from the concrete realities and concerns of the business.
In existing system architectures technical solutions typically repartition the business problem to provide an overall solution. Paradoxically, this requires the business process owners to understand the technical details in order to judge the efficacy of the solution. Inexorably this drives the dominant description of the problem to the technical domain and thereby jeopardizes the control the business has over the automation system.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to create a single shared model suitable for understanding and execution in both the business and technical domains.
The invention focuses on the specification problem in the area of business automation. The specification and implementation of automation of business processes is accomplished such that
the specification is independently manipulable by both the business process owner and technical implementers, and
resulting technical elements can be tested for compliance with every detail in the specification.
The solution to the specification problem lies in Information, Function, Flow (IFF o r IF2) factorization of business processes. Models of the business are constructed by way of the IF2 modeling methodology.
According to the invention, there is provided a means and method for business automation that unifies the solution of two problems heretofore assumed to be disjoint. Taken together, their solution forms the technical foundation for the construction of network-based business process automation (BPA) systems. These problems are:
1. The Specification Problem: How to easily and efficiently develop business automation software so that the information processes for a business can be automated in a customized way, as opposed to the more typical software solution, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages like the SAP suite of products available from SAP AG. Current approaches to business modeling do not easily map to controllable technical implementation.
2. The Modularization Problem: The difficulties involved in reuse and maintenance are well known. Many of these stem from the initial factorization of the business problem and their mapping to the technical domain. How to package the software in such a way that it is broken into separate modules which by extension are capable of running on separate, small, embedded processors acting as intelligent processor nodes. The solution does not require a server that runs all the software (again, as with an SAP solution to business automation), but rather is run on many, small and inexpensive distributed processor nodes.
The specification and modularization problems are solved using an Information, Function, Flow (IF2) factorization of business processes. The mechanism for creating a system specification is to create a model of the business from IF2 elements. This is a complete model which includes, by construction, external specifications of each task included in the business model.
The modularization problem is solved by preserving the partitioning of the system created in the business model. The automation system implements concrete modules that uniquely and directly correspond to particular elements whose external specification is determined by the business model. A desirable characteristic unique to this solution of the modularization problem is that the cost of changes in the system is proportional to the amount of change in the business model.
The solution to the business process automation (BPA) problem follows from the IF2 business model (the solution to the specification problem) and a partition preserving implementation of the IF2 modules (the solution to the modularization problem). The system specification depends only on the business model: the external specification of the defined implementation elements is provided by the same system specification.
A significant consequence of the BPA solution is encapsulation of technological concerns. The business process owner (customer) need only be concerned with their business process and not with any of the technical details of the implementation. For example, the business specifies in detail the operation of a business specific process rather than focusing on client-server technology or specific data base behaviors. Correspondingly, the technical implementor need only construct and validate individually the implementation modules that match the provided external specification regardless of their internal design.